ABSTRACT
In the past, doctors routinely treated patients with the same disease very similarly, perhaps altering standard treatment plans only when a drug failed to bring a patient’s blood pressure under control or when a side effect became too much for a patient to handle. But with the completion of the Human Genome Project in the early 2000s, doctors now had another tool in their arsenal: genomic data. Over the past decade, continued advances in sequencing technologies and ancillary techniques has led to exponential growth in the genetic testing industry and is beginning to personalize care for all patients. Advances in artificial intelligence and cognitive computing are further changing how doctors interact with their patients, from predicting the likelihood of disease, to diagnosis and analysis of radiological imaging, to monitoring chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD). We present the numerous challenges that remain for genomic testing and provide some examples of how it and other technologies are driving healthcare toward a more personalized, evidence-based experience for patients.
